Grand Theft Auto IV Hits the Jackpot

Compare that to a score of 96 for Microsoft's(MSFT Quote) Xbox 360 version of BioShock, another critically acclaimed title from Take-Two that was released last August and went on to become a sleeper hit with a score of 94 for Halo 3, one of last year's biggest hits.

Halo 3 has sold more than eight million copies since it was released in September. Even industry rival Activision's(ATVI Quote) chartbuster Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare game only received an average score of 94 from Metacritic.

Grand Theft Auto IV continues the story of Niko Bellic, the lead character of the game who is an Eastern European immigrant in Liberty City, a fictional place modeled on New York City. Bellic plays a killer and has a cast of supporting characters, including a drug dealer, a girlfriend, a corrupt police detective and a Russian mob rival.

GTA IV is different from other games because of its level of detail, its strong dialogue and the high level of technological sophistication in rendering life-like action scenes.

"So far everything I have seen is very impressive from visuals, to story telling to technology," says Jeremy Dunham, games editorial manager at IGN.com. "Rockstar has taken what was a bigger-than-life series and made it come alive."

Dean Takahashi, a journalist who blogs at VentureBeat, agrees. GTA IV is "truly one of the best that I have seen," he says in his latest post.

GTA IV's success, however, is likely to have little impact on Take-Two's stock at this point. Shares of Take-Two have fallen into a certain range since EA'sunsolicited offer in February. Take- Two has insisted that it will look at any buyout offers, including EA's, only after the release of GTA IV, a position that EA has rejected.